Food and Drink

Jack-o-lanterns have withered, but pumpkins are not old news yet. November is the biggest month of the year for pumpkin consumption. Pie, ice cream, cheesecake, soup, muffins, bread and lattes all feature pumpkins this time of year. In anticipation of Thanksgiving, canned pumpkin sales soar. Ninety percent of canned pumpkin sales are made in the fourth quarter.
Canned pumpkin is good, but Libby and all the other canners get it the same place you can: in the shell.

If mocha is your mistress or black coffee is your morning muse, there is a place for you. Local coffee shops don’t skimp on quality and cater right to you.
Locally owned coffee shops offer freshness, friendliness and community.
Don’t get me wrong. Starbucks is my usual go-to for coffee. The chain is easy to find, I know what to expect and I have been a gold card member for two years.

Heaven & earth never agreed better to frame a place for man’s habitation; were it fully manured and inhabited by industrious people.
Captain John Smith barely exaggerated. So good are the fish and flesh, fruit and vegetables of Chesapeake Country that they need no adornment. Or very little. Salt and pepper, oil and vinegar are complements enough. Add some fire, and you’ve got all you need.

Farm-fresh fruit and vegetables plus fin and shellfish straight from the Bay abound in midsummer Maryland. Farmers markets, roadside stands and grocery stores all sell local produce.
But will you fare so well when you go out to eat?
Yes — if you know where to look.

Is Owings Mills a hometown team for us in Anne Arundel or Calvert ­County? With the 58 other competing teams from all over the Eastern United States, Owings Mills is the hometown favorite. That team, 3 EYZ BBQ took home the Grand Champion prize of $2,500 at the Parole Rotary Club’s Naptown barBAYq festival.

If my wife had been watching me read the paper that day in late December, she might have been puzzled by the rapidly changing emotions on my face, changing in an instant from a smile to confusion to displeasure. I was reading Bay Weekly’s Best of the Bay edition, hoping to find some local treasure that somehow had missed my radar. As I reviewed the categories, I found some I very much agreed with (Best Concert Venue: Rams Head) and many that I didn’t know much about (Acupuncture). Some went on my list to try (Best Sushi: Umai), and some I disagreed with.

Cutthroat Kitchen, Cupcake Wars and Top Chef: We’ve grown to love televised cooking competitions.
Whole Foods Market’s Top Cake competition skipped television for an on-location reality show. To crown the Mid-Atlantic Region’s best cake decorator, Whole Foods invited real people to its Annapolis store to taste and admire. If you showed up early enough, you could even get a ticket to choose a cake to take home.

It’s a new year. With the flip of a calendar comes a chance to renew, refresh and remodel.
In Annapolis, the new year offers opportunity for two local restaurateurs to help each other.
Andrew Parks, owner of Sam’s on the Waterfront, has announced his new executive chef, Jim Wilder. Chef Wilder recently closed his Westgate Circle restaurant Wild Orchid after a difficult three-year tenure.

The lessons at Anne Arundel Community ­College’s Culinary Institute will last well after the new yearBob Melamud

Bob Melamud

Food eaten between November 1 and New Year’s Day contains no calories. I suspect I’m not alone in honoring this conviction. Yet a lifetime of stepping on the scale January 2 has convinced me that our cherished belief is a cruel urban legend.
This year I faced an additional challenge. Our editor assigned me to take and report on an Anne Arundel Community College Culinary Institute holiday class. Biscotti, cookies, Scandinavian baking and truffles tempted me — and promised an overabundance of extra calories.

Can Thanksgiving dinner be both wonderful and boring at the same time? I’ve been having the exact same Thanksgiving dinner for almost 25 years now, and it’s getting old. Every year it’s the same people, same place, same menu.
What’s changeable?
It’s family, so that’s not changing.
Turkey with stuffing, sweet potatoes, gravy and the trimmings are too traditional to change.